TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRACTICE QUOTES – JUNE 12, 2015

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 PPG AUTOMOTIVE REFINISH TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ON LEADING CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: “You can’t focus on points, you have to focus on executing every weekend and if things work out well then we look good. It’s exciting to be in my second year back and leading the points though it doesn’t guarantee anything but so far it’s been a good season.”

ON BEING FASTEST IN PRACTICE: I think we have really good cars in Toronto. We went out, didn’t get in many laps because we had a problem with the brakes. But we fixed that and went back out and the speed was there. It’s encouraging, but with the rain it just makes it hard because we start over again tomorrow.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 67 HARTMAN OIL CFH RACING CHEVROLET: “I think we had a good first session. Along with Luca (Filippi), the whole team rolled off the truck really well, which is important. In INDYCAR, now it’s critical that you roll off pretty good. If you don’t, it can be a tougher weekend to catch up because normally the people that were good in the first session just keep getting better and better. I think we have a good base to work off of. It would’ve been cooler if we were 1-2, but it’s just the first practice. It doesn’t really mean anything. Hopefully we can roll that into tomorrow and be solid. It would be nice to get a good event for us.”

LUCA FILIPPI, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA CFH RACING CHEVROLET: “I raced here before and that’s special to me because it’s the very first race for me (this season) that I get here and I know how the circuit is. I actually raced here before (in the 2014 doubleheader) so instead of having to learn everything from the very beginning, I know what to expect from the car, what to expect from the circuit, and go from there. It was very good from the very beginning. Me and Josef, we had the opportunity to push and be at the top; that was important. Also the fact that we now, I think, found a very good baseline, a very good setup for street courses. I think in Detroit we didn’t show our performances, but I think we were competitive. So far a very clean weekend. We came with a good car and I knew the circuit, so here we are. I just hope we can continue on this level. I think so.”

WILL POWER, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “I felt like we had a pretty good car, so we’re not too far out of the window. We’re not changing much, we’ll just go into tomorrow and see what we’ve got. I’m hoping it’s going to be dry, otherwise we should have been running (in the second practice session).”

HOW ARE YOU APPROACHING THE CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR?
“The approach of every session at a time, every lap, every corner type thing. To just be yourself and do your thing. Anytime you’re trying to be too conservative or too aggressive you’re trying to manipulate a result – so it’s not how you are, how you drive and how you race. It’s better to play to your strengths and let it unfold. Obviously battling teammates (for the championship) is a little bit harder cause you’re in the same engineering office … but I did it last year and it was fine. Battling with another team there’s always a big push to beat that team. When you’re battling another teammate you’ve got to play it pretty nice on the track and all that stuff. It’s a different story but we’ll take it as it comes.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ON RAIN TODAY: It’s a shame for the fans, obviously, because they’re coming here for the big race. Toronto’s always a great town to be, it’s one of the spots I recommend to a lot of people not only because it’s a great race but also because it’s a great town. That’s the only downside is because of the fans.

STRATEGY FOR NEXT PRACTICE: Planning without the weather, we’re planning around tires and things like that for the second session. The car seems to be off the back pretty good, and it’s a very tight field as you can see from third to eighth or ninth where I’m at, it’s like in in the same tenth which is amazing. So it’s definitely going to be competitive.

DIFFICULT PARTS OF TORONTO TRACK: Most of the corners have a patch of concrete in the middle, and the concrete is actually an old concrete so it’s almost like glass, so when you hit those concretes it’s very slippery. You go from asphalt to concrete and asphalt, so you can figure what we have to deal with in the middle of the corner.

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 LEVEMIRE FLEXTOUCH CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET: “Overall I was pretty happy with the first practice this morning. The No. 83 Levemir® FlexTouch® Chevrolet is definitely in the window and the track is changing almost lap to lap. As green as a street circuit like this is, it rubbers up every time you go through a corner. I think the car handled really well out there with the changing conditions, so I’m optimistic heading into tomorrow. We had some things we wanted to work on this afternoon, but we’ll just have to make sure we work it in to the morning practice and get the car where it needs to be for qualifying.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET: “I think we’re all bummed that we didn’t get the chance to run in the second session. The first session was good for the No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet and the track just kept getting faster and faster. We didn’t make any changes heading into tomorrow’s practice and I’m feeling really good about where we are with the car.”

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 8 AFS CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET: “It was a short but productive day for the No. 8 AFS Chevrolet. I feel very good with how those 19 laps we did this morning went. It was good for me to get back in the car and have some time to make sure the rust was gone after not being on a road course since Long Beach. The car was really consistent today and we really spent more time just making sure I was comfortable back in the car and that everything felt good to me. I can use all the time I can get in the car, so it’s unfortunate that the second practice got cancelled. I’m looking forward to a dry day tomorrow and to carry our momentum from practice into qualifying.”

SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 JURASSIC WORLD CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET: “We had some electrical issues during today’s first session, but the team worked really hard to get it fixed. It’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to get back on-track for a full session for the second practice, but we were able to get the car out for a quick in and out lap to make sure the issue we had in the morning was fixed. We’re looking forward to making sure we’re good before qualifying in tomorrow’s first practice, but the No. 9 Jurassic World Chevrolet should be pretty fast this weekend.”